The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-22

SpCSSn VI sun Ol JOt1u Ule great
John Quincy Adams, in which he welcomed
KoSsuth to the United States, and read
message after message penned by
Madison and Monroe There was
not so much ceremony in the writing
Of State papers then. Parchment was
not used, and the rought, unruled wrapping
paper-llke material is of all shapes and
sizes.
In book containing the messages of John
Adams l came across an autograph letters
of Martha Washington, sent to Adams
shortly after her husbands death and sub
united by Adams TO Congress It relates to
the proposed removal of Washington's re-
mains from Mount Vernon to the national
capitol, and as read the trembling lines
could almost see the widow of the first Presi-
dent seated in her little attic room at Mount
Vernon, to which she retired after his death
with only cat it is said, for company. She
kept her room, you know, for months, and
refused to be comforted, and it was here she
wrote this letter. 1t is dated Jan 81, 1899.
the year in which Washington died On its
back there is aknote saying it was sent TO
Congress with the message of the President
on Jan. 8, 1900 The paper is of the size of
the largest fashionable note-paper of to-day.
Its edges are yellow and its color has been
faded by its eighty-seven years of age. It
is torn at the top, and Mr.. Finch tells me
1t was once stolen and afterward returned
as mysteriously as it was taken away. The
writing is plain and the words are so well
spelled that it is fair to supposed that Tobias
Lear, Washington's private secretary, cor
rected the first draft of the letter, and
that Martha copied it before it was sent. 1t
reads:
mount VERNON, Dec. 81, 17o9.-Sir.
While l feel with keenest anguish the late
dispensation of Divine Providence, I can
not be insensible to the momnful tributes of
respect and veneration which are paid to
the memory of my dear deceased husband;
and as his best services and most anxious
wishes were always devoted to the welfare
and happiness of his country, to know that
they were fully appreciated and gratefully
remembered affords no inconsiderable CON
ISOLATION.
Taught by the great example which /
have long had before me, never to oppose
my private wishes to the public will, |
must consent to the request made by Con-
gress, which you have had the goodnes to
transmit to me; and in doing this need not,
can not say, what sacrifice of individual
feeling make to a sense of duty.
with grateful Acknowledgement and
unfeigned thanks for the personal repect and
evidences of coincidence expressed by Con-
gress and yourself, I remain, very repect-
fully, sir, your most obedient and humble
servant, MARTHA WASHINGTON"
The journals of all the Congresses are
here, and I looked with interest over the
first journals of the House of Representa-
tlves-a big, thick ledger, IA inches wide
and "a inches long. It was begun in 1889,
and the heavy calf in which it is bound is
canvas cover which is over this is frayed
and torn with the rubbing of more than
three generations of fingers. The writing,
however, is as plain now as when it was first
penned, and this clerk of the House of Rep
reSentatives of ninty-Seven wears ago was
not bad scribe. He took pride in his work,
and the first page is decorated as those done
by one of those artist monks of the middle
ages who made the Illuminated Bibles of
antiquity. 1t has the tineness of an elabo-
rate copper-plate engraveing, and this deco
ration is kept up during the session of the
First Congress. AS the years go on the
careful writing dies out, and after a few
Congresses all that is aimed at is legibility
The newneSs has worn off, and the clerk
evidently wants to finish his work as soon
as possible.
In room at the right of the one in which
looked at the above papers, there is
another packed with more Of these old papers
and valuable autographs. Here is the full
testimony taken before the Committee ON
the Conduct of the War, and down below I
was shown thousands of files of war claims
which have been presented to Congress.
The testimony before the committees In i'm
portant cases is kept here, and when it Is re-
membered that one class of these war claims
brought in more than -, 900 claimants, and
the amount asked for was more than 500
OOO, 900, somewhat of the extent of this class
of the records may be seen.
Many of these documents are confidential.
and there is third room, which looks like
the cell of a prison, which is devoted to
these The collection includes confidential
messages to the Congresses of the past, and
like much of the other matter, it is full of
unwrittin history. None of these papers are
ever seen by strangers. They are hidden
away in rooms off of the corridors of the
capitol and are watched as carefully as the
surplus of the Treasury. It is well that it
is so, for an autograph theft could easily ruin
many valuable papers, and III such q mass
the theft might not be detected for years.
after its commission.